Charcoal grills became popular after World War II and became synonymous with the “backyard barbeque” in America. In the United States alone, it is estimated that nearly $800 million of charcoal was sold in 2006. Despite its popularity and pervasiveness, little innovation has taken place in this industry and all of the same problems associated with charcoal still remain.
Despite the broad appeal of charcoal grilling, grilling with charcoal fuel presents a number of problems including: requiring some type of intermediate ignition means, typically lighter fluid (petroleum distillates); requiring a long warm-up time (typically 30 minutes) prior to being suitable to cook over; having a long cool-down time (typically at least four hours) before the combustion has fully ceased and the grill can be safely cleaned or stored; being extremely messy, both from a set-up and clean-up standpoint, due to dirty combination of ash, soot, grease and other remains; generating significant amounts of carbon monoxide (a widely-known inhalation toxin); producing smoke and emissions that are an air quality and environmental concern; burning dirty and producing more polycyclic aromatic hydrocarbons (known carcinogens) relative to electric or gas grilling alternatives; being heavy and taking up a significant amount of space.
The present invention is new heat source for barbeque grills and other applications; specifically those grills that are fueled with traditional charcoal briquettes.